FAMILY PSITTACIDAE (fj 



A female, taken March 6, 1950, at the Quebrada Cauchero, on the 

 base of Cerro Chucanti, had the iris dull yellow; bill dusky neutral 

 gray, becoming horn color on the culmen and sides of the maxilla ; bare 

 skin on sides of head, and cere dull rose, changing to yellowish white 

 on the throat ; scutes on tarsi and toes dusky neutral gray, with the 

 spaces between fuscous ; claws dusky neutral gray. 



Measurements. — Males (7 from Costa Rica, Panama, and Colom- 

 bia), wing 366-397 (390), tail 387-481 (430), culmen from cere 64.8- 

 74.0 (70.4), tarsus 35.5-38.8 (37.5) mm. 



Females (5 from Costa Rica, Panama, and Colombia), wing 366- 

 405 (385), tail 362-439 (402), culmen from cere 69.5-74.0 (71.0), 

 tarsus 34.4-38.2 (36.2) mm. 



Resident. Local, in Tropical and Subtropical Zone forests. 



Recent records are as follows: Bocas del Toro (above Almirante, 

 numerous, 1960) ; western Los Santos (hills above Las Palmitas, 

 1962) ; eastern Panama Province (upper Chagres Valley, above Peluca 

 on the Rio Pequeni, 1961 ; lower Rio Bayano, above Canita, 1962 ; 

 above Chiman, Maje, Charco del Toro, Cerro Chucanti, 1950) ; Darien 

 (Cerro Pirre, 1961) ; Cerro Mali, Rio Tacarcuna, La Laguna, 1963; 

 Rio Jaque, 1947. 



Salvin (Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1870, p. 213), recorded specimens 

 taken by Arce in the hill country at Calovevora, Veraguas ; and Sclater 

 and Salvin (Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1864, p. 368) received others 

 from McLeannan collected near the lower Chagres. Possibly it was 

 this species that Goldman saw flying at a distance in 1911 at the 

 Gatun Dam when it was under construction. This is the latest report 

 that has come to me of macaws in the Canal Zone. 



These great birds now are found in Panama only in remote forested 

 areas. The usual view of them is of pairs in flight to and from feeding 

 grounds in the morning and evening. When the region is not in- 

 habited, the birds often are tame so that they allow close approach. 

 On Cerro Pirre they came regularly around our camp. Here they 

 ranged in the high tree crown and showed little fear, as there had been 

 only casual human penetration of this region in recent years. In April 

 1947, I recorded them regularly in the hill country on the upper Rio 

 Jaque. Griscom (Amer. Mus. Nov., no. 282, 1927, p. 4) reported 3 

 pairs seen at Garachine. In January 1962, I saw pairs twice over the 

 hills back of Las Palmitas in the Rio Guanico Valley in southwestern 

 Los Santos. 



The earliest account of this genus of parrots in Panama, that of 

 Lionel Wafer (Isthmus of America, 1699, pp. 116-117), a composite 



